SEC Proposes Rules to Open Registered Funds to Private Markets
Two SEC proposals would let registered funds deliver private-market exposure more freely, while shifting liquidity, valuation and board-oversight burdens onto fund-level judgments and leaving key terms open to comment.
The SEC has put forward two proposals that would make registered fund structures more attractive to sponsors offering investors access to private markets. As described in the client alert, the pair could broaden the routes by which private-market exposure is delivered through registered vehicles, and in exchange would rely more heavily on fund-specific judgments about liquidity and valuation and on board oversight rather than a single uniform framework. Both proposals are in the public comment stage; the alert does not state the comment deadline, and neither proposal is final, so terms could shift before adoption. Counsel and clients should care because the design points — how liquidity is classified, how valuations are struck, and what boards must do — determine how sponsors package flagship private-market products, how advisers are paid, and where illiquidity and stale-pricing risk sit. Watch for the comment deadline, the substance of comment letters from private-markets trade groups, and any final rules that follow.